The effect of management coaching is effective on the feeling of personal effectiveness in leadership. Historically, coaching in companies referred mainly to the intervention of an external coach for a targeted intervention. Often for management and face-to-face levels. But ... what about internal coaching?
Coaching is a profession but also a specific method which contains a range of skills and tools, and in combination, can be utilized by leaders to support and accelerate the performance of individuals and organizations. Questioning techniques and active listening are two strong examples.
The new work environment and the rise of multi-mode coaching - on a larger scale and at a distance - is changing the game, with companies increasingly willing to leverage their coaching skills internally.
Here are 3 angles to explore to take an initial inventory of the coaching skills you have in-house and their use:
Looking at your current resources
- Do you have people on staff who are also certified as professional coaches?
- Do you have people in-house whose coaching represents more than 30% of their activity?
- Do you recommend coaching or coaching mindset to your employees (to the current training offering for example)?
- What percentage of your leaders do you think naturally adopts a coaching leadership mindset?
Behind the coaching, there is the intention
- How is your internal coaching done today (face-to-face, distance, hybrid)?
- When do you use coaching (career stage, level, underperformance, etc.)? And with what intention (to correct, reinforce, prevent, as a tool to support change)?
- Which of these forms of coaching are practiced internally? E.g.: Individual coaching, group coaching, peer coaching.
Recognizing the impact on all employees
- Is there a clear framework that organizes, protects and optimizes the impact of in-house coaching (including trust and confidentiality and use of a platform)?
- What is the perception of the organization's leaders about in-house coaching?
- Is it attractive and are there any beliefs or fears to combat internally around coaching?
- What results are currently being achieved through internal coaching? Are there any metrics on the impact of coaching?
After an initial assessment, this is a great opportunity to take a step back and look at your current challenges. Your strategy and efforts on this topic will not be the same if you wish to address a retention issue, support a transformation or if you wish to foster collective intelligence and innovation, for example.
In addition, depending on your intention and your diagnosis of this lever of internal coaching skills, you can choose and test different tactics. Here are some of them: having dedicated resources, seeing this skill as an integral part of the leader's role, setting up collective coaching routines, or using structuring tools that allow for measurement...